Harvester sweeper

ABSTRACT

A sweeping device for incorporation into a harvester to pick ears of corn off the ground. Rows of flexible fingers are attached to bars supported between endless chains. Sprockets drive the chains thereby forcing the fingers across the ground and through slotted support plates to a shucking mechanism. Slotted wrap around plates are attached to the front of the harvester trapping the ears of corn as they are lifted off the ground by the fingers.

United States Patent 1151 3,719,034

Lange 1 Mar. 6, 1 973 [54] HARVESTER SWEEPER 3,096,604 7/1963 Baker etal ..56/119 X 3,572,018 3/1971 Broussard ..56/119 [72] Imam l':;,1,780,472 11/1930 Gilger ..56/364 3,295,302 1/1967 Lee ..56/364 [22]Filed: Sept. 8, 1970 Primary Examiner-Russell R. Kinsey [21] Appl' 70307Assistant Examiner-J. A. Oliff Attomey-Woodard, Weikart, Emhardt &Naughton [52] US. Cl. ..56/119, 15/80, 56/364,

198/173 [57] ABSTRACT A sweeping device for incorporation into aharvester 198/173 6 to pick ears of corn ofi the ground. Rows offlexible fingers are attached to bars supported between endless chains.Sprockets drive the chains thereby forcing the [56] References Citedfingers across the ground and through slotted support UNITED STATEPATENT plates to a shucklingi mecllznis? Slottted t\lavralp around 1pates are attac e to e mm o t e arvester 3,209,526 10/1965 MOI'I'OW..56/ 119 X trapping the ears of com as they are lifted off the2,390,419 12/ 1945 Brown et a1 ..56/364 UX ground by the fingem3,331,196 7/1967 Grant ..56/98 X 3,584,444 6/1971 Sammann ..56/119 5Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENH'DHAR ems;

sum 1 er 3 INVENTOR PM .1 [M65 Fig.1.

BY uM/M4AJM, mama Man /1m ATTORNEYS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Fieldof the Invention This is a sweeping device for picking up ears of cornoff the ground.

2. Description of the Prior Art Corn harvesters, such as the one shownin the U.S. Pat. No. 2,961,820 issued to Hadley, allow the farmer toquickly gather the corn from the field. Similar harvesters and liftersare shown in the following US. Pat. Nos.: 2,835,097 issued to Sullivan,2,933,876 issued to Davin and 3,438,184 issued to Jellis.

The conventional corn harvester will strip the ears of corn from thestalk and convey the ears to a shucking mechanism. These same harvesterswill not however pick up the separate ears of corn which have fallen offthe stalk to the ground. In addition, these harvesters will generallynot pick up a stalk which is lying flat on the ground. As a result, manyears of corn are not harvested since they are lying on the ground.

From the above background, it can be seen that there is a need for adevice for picking up the ears of corn lying on the ground which are notcollected by a conventional harvester. The device should be capable ofbeing incorporated into existing harvesters so that the farmer will beable to harvest all of the corn in one pass over the rows of corn.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention is a sweeping device which maybe used to harvest rows of corn. Rows of flexible rubber fingers arefixedly attached to C-shaped bars having hooks at either end engagingcontinuous roller chains. Sprockets fixedly mounted to rotating shaftsdrive the chains thereby forcing the fingers across the ground and up toa shucking mechanism. The fingers project through slotted platessupporting the ears of corn as they are conveyed to the shuckingmechanism. Slotted front plates are attached to the front of theharvester engaging the fingers as they lift the ears of corn off of theground. Rubber bumpers are attached to the bottoms of the front plates.An alternate embodiment of the present invention is used to pick updebris along highways.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a device for pickingup the ears of corn lying on the ground which are not collected by aconventional harvester.

It is a further object to provide a device as previously described andwhich may be incorporated into existing harvesters.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a sweepingdevice having fingers for picking up debris from and along highways.

Related objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparentfrom the following specification.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF TI-IEv DRAWING FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspectiveview of the front shovel shaped portion of a corn picker incorporatingthe present invention.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary side view of the corn picker of FIG. 1 with sidewall 48 removed for particularly showing the driving mechanism and isviewed in the direction of arrows 2-2 of FIG. I.

FIG. 3 is a top perspective view of the three bottom support plates ofFIG. 1 with grooves for the finger like elements to project through.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view looking down into the corn picker shown inFIG. 1 with the support plates of FIG. 3 removed.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged view taken along the line 5-5 of FIG. 4 and viewedin the direction of the arrows.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS For the purposes of promotingan understanding of the principles of the invention, reference will nowbe made to the drawing and the embodiments of the invention will bedescribed in the following specification. It will nevertheless beunderstood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is therebyintended, such alterations and further modifications in the illustrateddevice, and such further applications of the principles of the inventionas illustrated therein being contemplated as would normally occur to oneskilled in the art to which the invention relates.

Referring now more particularly to FIG. 1, there is illustrated thefront shovel shaped portion 43 of a corn picker 20'for harvesting a corncrop. Shovel shaped portion 43 is fixedly fastened by welding or othersuitable means to the main frame 29 of corn picker 20 and has two sidewalls 47 and 48 fixedly fastened by screws or welds, not shown, to theback wall 49. Snouts 23 and 24 are spaced apart forming opening 26 forreceiving a row of com 21 whereas snouts 24 and 25 are spaced apart forforming opening 27 for receiving row of com 22. Many more snouts may beadded to the front of the corn picker depending on the desired number ofrows of corn to be harvested simultaneously.

As corn picker 20 is propelled across the field of com, the rows enterthe openings between the snouts and move towards rotating shuckingmechanism 30 partially shown in the fragmented portion of FIG. 1. Thebottom wall of shovel shaped portion 43 is inclined from the snouts upto the shucking mechanism so that the ears of corn may be stripped fromthe stalks eventually passing through opening 50 between back wall 49and the bottom wall of the shovel shaped portion 43. Located along andadjacent either side of opening 26 and 27 are members 41 (FIG. 4) whichcatch the stalks of corn and strip the ears of corn from the stalk.Members 41 have been omitted from FIG. 1 for sake of clarity. As members41 move up the inclined bottom wall of shovel shaped portion 43 towardsshucking mechanism 30 the ears of corn are stripped from the stalk.Members 41 are fastened to chains and are moved towards the shuckingmechanism 30. The shucking mechanism 30 is rotatably mounted and has asprocket 31 (-FIG. 1) engaging a continuous roller chain 34. A motor,not shown, is mounted to main frame 29 and drives sprocket 32 which alsoengages roller chain 34. As sprocket 32 is rotated, chain 34 alsorotates causing sprocket 31 and shucking mechanism 30 to rotate.

Shaft 55 (FIG. 4) extends freely through support bars 63 and 79 and hassprockets 64 and 80 fixedly mounted thereon respectively adjacent bars63 and 79 for driving the conventional mechanism for stripping the earsof corn from the stalk. Bars 48', 63 and 79 are attached to main frame29 by welding or other suitable means. Worm gears and 81 respectivelyengage sprockets 64 and 80 having small diametered chain gears 66 and 82mounted to their tops for respectively driving chains 42 and 83. Chains42 and 83 respectively engage chain gears 68 and 85 which are rotatablymounted by suitable brackets fastened to bars 63 and 79. The strippingelements 41 are fixedly mounted to chains 42 and 83 on either side ofopening 26 for receiving stalks. Worm gears 65 and 81 are mounted torods not shown which are secured to bars 63 and 79. The above describedcorn picker is conventional and is commercially sold by the John Deereand Company of Moline, Illinois under Model Corn Special 45.

In many cases, ears of corn 38 are lying on the ground. These ears aregenerally not picked up by a corn picker since the stalksmust bestanding up off the ground in order to pass through the openings formedbetween the snouts. The present invention has fingerlike elements 35moveable across the ground in the direction of arrow 51, brushingagainst the plates attached to the back of the snouts in the directionof arrow 52 and up through the slots 92 in the bottom wall of shovelshaped portion 43 in the direction of arrow 36. This sweeping actionallows the corn picker to sweep the ground and pick up ears of cornlying on the ground thereby increasing the efficiency of the cornpicker.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the corn picker of FIG. I with side wall 48removed to show the driving mechanism. As previously mentioned, it isthe practice to drive shucking mechanism 30 by a sprocket and chainmechanism. Thus, in FIG. 2, sprocket 31 is fixedly mounted to the end ofshaft 53 of shucking mechanism 30. An endless roller chain 34 engagessprockets 31 and 32, the latter sprocket being fixedly mounted to theoutput motor shaft 54 used to drive chain 34. A third sprocket 33engages continuous roller chain 34 transmitting power to shaft 55 formoving fingerlike elements 35.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary top view of the corn picker of FIG. 1 with thebottom wall of shovel shaped portion 43 removed. Shaft 55 is rotatablymounted to the top of side walls 48 and 47 (FIG. 1) and has sprocket 33fixedly mounted to its end engaging continuous roller chain 34. Alsofixedly mounted to shaft 55 adjacent the inside of support bar 48 issprocket 56 which engages continuous roller chain 57. Rotatably mountedto the bottom of support bars 48' and 63 is shaft 58 which carriessprocket 59. Continuous roller chain 57 extends around and engagessprockets 56 and 59. Shaft 55 extends freely through support bar 63 andhas sprocket 60 fixedlymounted to it adjacent bar 63. Mounted alsoadjacent to support bar 63 on shaft 58 is sprocket 62. Continuous rollerchain 61 extends completely around and engages sprockets 60 and 62.

FIG. 4 shows only the left side of the corn picker of FIG. 1. It isunderstood, however, that the following description also applies to theright side of the corn picker. Likewise, many of the C-shaped bars 73have been omitted from FIG. 4 for sake of clarity. One of the C-shapedbars 73 will now be described, it being understood that a similardescription applies to the other C-shaped bars behind snouts 23, 24, and25.

Fingerlike elements 35 are fixedly fastened by bolts 71 and nuts 72 toC-shaped bar 73 which is secured to chains 57 and 61 at either end.Referring to FIG. 5, bar

73 has hooks 74 and 75 firmly secured to both ends by rivets 76. Hooks74 and 75 have a grasping portion extending around one of the lengths ofchains 57 and 61. Thus, as shaft 55 is driven by sprocket 33 in thedirection of arrow 77 (FIG. 2), the Cshaped bars with fingerlikeelements 35 will move up towards shucking mechanism 30 in the directionof arrow 36 and back down in the direction of arrow 78.

The driving mechanism described above for the fingerlike elements 35behindsnout 23 is identical to that for driving the fingerlike elements35 behind snouts 24 and 25. Thus, sprockets 88 and 89 are fixedlymounted adjacent support bars 79 to shafts 55 and 87 with the continuousroller chain 90 having C-shaped bars 73 mounted thereto. In theembodiment of FIG. 1, six rows of elements 35 are mounted behind snout24 whereas only three rows of elements 35 are mounted behind each ofsnouts 23 and 25. Support bars 79 and 79' (FIG. 1) are welded to frame29 as are support bars 94 and 94.

The bottom wall of shovel-like portion 53 was removed from FIG. 4 inorder to show the driving mechanism more clearly. A top perspective viewof the bottom wall is shown in FIG. 3. Actually the bottom wall iscomposed of three separate support plates 44, 45 and 46. Inclinedsupport plate 44 mounts to and between support bars 48 and 63. Plate 44has tabs 91 on either side which are welded to bars 48' and 63. The fourcorners of plate 44 have cutouts 93 to prevent interference between theplate and sprockets 56, 59, 60 and 62. Three slots 92 are provided forelements 35 to project through. Plate 46 is identical with plate 44 andis welded to bar 94 and 94. (FIG. 1). Plate 46 also has three slots 92and cutouts 93. Plate 45 is configured identically with plates 44 and 46with the exception that plate 45 is wider since it has six slots forreceiving six rows of fingerlike elements 35. Plate 45 fits behind snout24 and has tabs welded to support bars 79 and 79. The lower portion ofplate 44 is radiused, as indicated by radius R, so that the plate mayextend partially over and around shaft 58 as shown in FIG. 2. Likewise,the lower portion of plates 45 and 46 are also radiused.

Referring to FIG. 1, snouts 23, 24 and 25 are welded to wrap aroundplates 95, 96 and 97. In FIG. 2, plate has a vertical portion 98integrally joined to curved portion 99. Snout 23 is welded to verticalportion 98. Mounted beneath snout 23 is rubber bumper 100 extending thelength of vertical portion 98. The bumper is sufficiently flexible toallow ears of corn to pass to fingers 35. Bumper 100 is fastened toplate 95 by bolts 101 and nuts 102. Plate 95 is slotted for fingerlikeelements 35 to project through. The slots in plate 95 extend from thetop of curved portion 99 to approximately midway between the bottom ofportion 98 and the top of portion 99. Fragmented section 103 illustratesthat snout 23 is hollow for elements 35 to project therein. Snout 23 andplate 95 are fixedly mounted to the lower end of support bar 48' by twoangle arms. In FIG. 2, angle arms 104 and 105 are welded to verticalportion 98 and support bar 48'. In addition, snout 23 and plate 95 havean arm 70 (FIG. 4) welded to member 69 of plate 44 (FIG. 2). Snout 25and plate 97 are mounted to their respective support bar and plate in amanner identical with the mounting for snout 23 and plate 95. Snout 24and plate 96 are fixedly mounted to plate 45 by arms 84 and 84' (H6. 4)being welded to members 86 and 86' (FIG. 2). Rubber bumpers are mountedto the bottoms of plates 96 and 97 in a manner identical as that tobumper 100 and plate 95 Fingers 35 are made from a flexible rubber, suchas that typically found in an automobile tire. As the fingers sweepthrough the slots provided in plates 95, 96 and 97 (FIG. 1), the fingerswill lift any ears of corn resting on top of plates 95, 96 and 97forcing the ears up toward mechanism 30 as illustrated by ear of corn39.

Another use of the present invention is to sweep up debris on and alonghighways. Several minor changes to the structure illustrated in thedrawing should be accomplished to modify the structure for highway use.

' Snouts 23, 24 and 25 are not required nor are openings 26 and 27.Likewise, the members 41 are not required. Plates 95, 96 and 97 arejoined in one integral piece and rows of fingers extend completelybehind the plates.

Many variations of the present invention are contemplated and includedin the present invention. For example, many snouts may be added to thefront of portion 43 depending on the number of rows of corn to beharvested.

lt will be evident from the above description that the present inventionprovides a device for picking up ears of corn lying on the ground whichare not collected by a conventional harvester. It will also be evidentthat the device may be incorporated into existing harvesters. Inaddition, it will be evident that the sweeping device may be used topick up debris along and on a highway.

While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in thedrawings and foregoing description, the same is to be considered asillustrative and not restrictive in character, it being understood thatonly the preferred embodiments have been shown and described and thatall changes and modifications that come within the spirit of theinvention are also desired to be protected.

The invention claimed is:

1. In a vehicle having a shovel-shaped forward end with an upwardlyinclined bottom wall with a downwardly curved bottom end portion andfirst slots extending through said portion and up said wall, snoutsmounted to said end and spaced apart forming openings to receiveupstanding corn stalks, stripping means mounted on said end on bothsides of each of said openings for stripping ears of corn from saidstalks passing through said openings, guide means mounted on said endoperable to guide said ears to a collector subsequent to the strippingthereof; wherein the improvement comprises:

said snouts each having a wrap around plate mounted on the rearward endthereof, each plate being spaced sufficiently outward of said bottom endportion to allow ears of corn to pass therebetween, each plate having atop portion with second slots curving in the same direction as saidbottom end; flexible finger-shaped elements; holding means having saidelements fixedly attached theretoand driving meansconnected to saidholding means for forcing said elements across the ground and throughsaid first slots and said plate forcing ears of corn on the ground upbetween said bottom end portion and said plate and operable to forcesaid elements through said second slots to lift ears of corn atop saidplate onto said bottom wall.

2. The vehicle of claim 1 wherein:

said bottom wall is separated into at least three separate pieces, eachof said pieces have said first slots therein receiving said elements;

said vehicle is a corn harvester and said snouts are hollow and arefixedly mounted each in front of said pieces, said elements projectthrough said pieces and into said snouts.

3. The vehicle of claim 2 additionally comprising:

support means fixedly attached to said vehicle extending downwardparallel with said bottom wall, said support means has said platefixedly mounted thereto in spaced relation to said bottom wall;

a rubber bumper fixedly attached to the bottom of said plate andextending downward to the ground.

4. The vehicle of claim 3 wherein:

said support means are rigid 'bars cantilevered from said vehicle.

5. The vehicle of claim 4 wherein:

said second slots extend from the top end of each plate to midwaybetween the ends of said plate.

1. In a vehicle having a shovel-shaped forward end with an upwardlyinclined bottom wall with a downwardly curved bottom end portion andfirst slots extending through said portion and up said wall, snoutsmounted to said end and spaced apart forming openings to receiveupstanding corn stalks, stripping means mounted on said end on bothsides of each of said openings for stripping ears of corn from saidstalks passing through said openings, guide means mounted on said endoperable to guide said ears to a collector subsequent to the strippingthereof; wherein the improvement comprises: said snouts each having awrap around plate mounted on the rearward end thereof, each plate beingspaced sufficiently outward of said bottom end portion to allow ears ofcorn to pass therebetween, each plate having a top portion with secondslots curving in the same direction as said bottom end; flexiblefinger-shaped elements; holding means having said elements fixedlyattached thereto; and, driving means connected to said holding means forforcing said elements across the ground and through said first slots andsaid plate forcing ears of corn on the ground up between said bottom endportion and said plate and operable to force said elements through saidsecond slots to lift ears of corn atop said plate onto said bottomwall.
 1. In a vehicle having a shovel-shaped forward end with anupwardly inclined bottom wall with a downwardly curved bottom endportion and first slots extending through said portion and up said wall,snouts mounted to said end and spaced apart forming openings to receiveupstanding corn stalks, stripping means mounted on said end on bothsides of each of said openings for stripping ears of corn from saidstalks passing through said openings, guide means mounted on said endoperable to guide said ears to a collector subsequent to the strippingthereof; wherein the improvement comprises: said snouts each having awrap around plate mounted on the rearward end thereof, each plate beingspaced sufficiently outward of said bottom end portion to allow ears ofcorn to pass therebetween, each plate having a top portion with secondslots curving in the same direction as said bottom end; flexiblefinger-shaped elements; holding means having said elements fixedlyattached thereto; and, driving means connected to said holding means forforcing said elements across the ground and through said first slots andsaid plate forcing ears of corn on the ground up between said bottom endportion and said plate and operable to force said elements through saidsecond slots to lift ears of corn atop said plate onto said bottom wall.2. The vehicle of claim 1 wherein: said bottom wall is separated into atleast three separate pieces, each of said pieces have said first slotstherein receiving said elements; said vehicle is a corn harvester andsaid snouts are hollow and are fixedly mounted each in front of saidpieces, said elements project through said pieces and into said snouts.3. The vehicle of claim 2 additionally comprising: support means fixedlyattached to said vehicle extending downward parallel with said bottomwall, said support means has said plate fixedly mounted thereto inspaced relation to said bottom wall; a rubber bumper fixedly attached tothe bottom of said plate and extending downward to the ground.
 4. Thevehicle of claim 3 wherein: said support means are rigid barscantilevered from said vehicle.